Broken Earth

and fun with spiders

Saturday, March 17th, 2114
The next morning began like any typical morning does in the wastes, accept that Darby had grown about a foot taller overnight. He couldn’t get his boots on, and took the largest pair of boots he could find from the bodies of the raiders, they were a tight fit, but he managed to get them on. The group decides to leave the cover of the trees along the river and head into the tall grass fields, continuing their journey south. They spend an uneventful day searching for the City of Bones, and watching for more raider patrols. Finding neither, they decide to make camp in the tall grass, and wait out the night. The night proceeds quietly until Ather’s watch.

In the pale night a subtle movement parts the grass near Ichiro, he awakens to a sharp pain in his shoulder. Sickening numbness floods his system before he can make more than a quiet gurgling sound. Through tearing eyes, Ichiro can see the blurry form of Ather looking out across the grass lands, alert for dangers coming from afar. Powerless, Ichiro’s vision darkens as a myriad of small clawed legs grasp his shoulders and quietly drag him down into the black.

A slight rustling sound saves him. Ather turns towards the noise in time to see the torso of Ichiro disappear into a cleverly concealed hole. Leaping to his feet he cries out to rouse the rest of the camp and grabs ahold of Ichiro’s legs. A brief tug-of-war ensues, everyone but Nim grabbing a leg and pulling. A large wolf-sized spider partially emerges from the trapdoor like hole, malevolent eyes gleaming in the moonlight. A dagger suddenly appears amidst the cluster of eyes, followed by a downward thrust from Darby’s bumper sword.

The spiders legs spasm them go still. They pull Ichiro the rest of the way from the hole, and lay him in the grass. Nim then grabs up the body of the spider and plops it down next to Ichiro’s still paralyzed form. A single tear of fear and frustration runs down from his eyes. His body slowly returns under his control over the next half hour. The rest of the early morning watches pass without incident.

Sunday, March 18th, 2114
The next day the group continues south. Darby seems to have grown another foot in height overnight, and his toes have burst through the front of his boots creating a sort of hobo sandal. As the day progresses, the grasslands fade to patches of withered scrub grass, bare cracked earth and rolling hills. The first half of the day is uneventful, no patrols, no giant trapdoor spiders. That changed around midday.

As the group is crossing a shallow dry gully, Ichiro notices a slight tremor, the only warning. With a deep rumble, a massive body suddenly erupts from the earth beneath their feet. The thing seemed to be all skin and toothy maw, vaguely cigar shaped with a triangular tail fin. Everyone managed to avoid the huge landshark before it dove back down into the earth, the dirt and rocks parting as water and it disappears from sight. A few moments later they feel another slight tremor before the jagged maw issues forth from the ground again. This time Ather wasn’t as lucky as he feels himself lifted into the air as the landshark bites down and begins to worry on his leg. He fortunately falls free of the beast before it managed to submerge with him beneath the dirt and stones.

The third tremor finds the group at the ready, and as the landshark emerges once again from the ground, Ather, Ichiro and Darby all strike as one. The combined onslaught slays the beast outright, and it’s body sinks back quietly into the earth. The group decides to not tarry and presses on, in case there were more landsharks about.

Just an hour before dusk, the group hears snatches of an angry conversation happening just over the crest of the next hill. Stealthily the group crawls up to the edge of the hill overlooking the shallow gully below and see what appears to be two raiders arguing while a third is beating on something that looks like a strongbox. A body lies nearby, presumably the owner of the strongbox, they could not tell of the owner was dead or alive.

Ather and Ichiro quietly fork outwards to flank the group form opposite sides, meanwhile Nim lines up and takes a shot putting down the raider that was arguing with his companion. As the other two raiders turn in disbelief, the second raider takes one of Ather’s knives in the throat, while Ichiro’s psi-blade makes short work of the raider that was trying to open the strongbox. On closer inspection, the strongbox has a combination locking mechanism, and it also features a leather harness custom built to allow someone to easily carry the strongbox on their back like a pack.

Ather checks the body and finds that the man is still shallowly breathing. He strikes the man’s face which rouses him. The man is at first confused, then alarmed – his eyes searching around him in a panic, and immediately asks “Where is my strongbox? What have you done with it?” Grabbing the man’s attention, Ichiro nudges the box on the ground with his foot and asks “you mean this one?”. The man seems to relax just a bit once he sees the box, before narrowing his eyes, looking between Ather and Ichiro and asking “So are you after my stash now too? You can’t have it!”

Darby steps up, lifting his arms in a placating manner and says “Whoa whoa whoa, settle down there. Seems to me, we just saved your ass, and therefore we deserve some form of recompense”. The man becomes more visibly agitated and begins to shake, one eyebrow twitching. “I’m Darby, and this here is Ather. The monkey man over there is called Ichiro.” Nim speaks up simply stating in a deadpan voice “Nim is Nim”. Darby nods his head towards Terry, “and that one is Scary Terry. What’s your name?” The man, still looking back longingly at his strongbox, says in a high pitched squeak, “Hi, I’m Mister Meeseeks. Look at me!”

It is quickly apparent to all that Mr. Meeseeks is not entirely right in the head, and regardless whatever was in the strongbox, Mr. Meeseeks was acting like a junky and his biggest score was now sitting in the strongbox. With some encouragement from Darby and his bumper sword, Mr. Meeseeks tearfully opened his strongbox… It was full, absolutely full, of pre-war candy of all shapes and sizes. Mr. Meeseeks grabs one off the top, quickly rips open the wrapper and devours the candy in just a few bites. With a shiver, the manic look in his eyes fades some, he says “God. Four days, eight hours and twenty-one minutes. I really didn’t know how much longer I was going to make it.” He steels a glance at the bodies of the raiders not far away, “Assholes.”

With another worried look back at Darby and the group, Mr. Meeseeks nods to himself and quickly selects five seemingly random candies from the strongbox before shutting it again. The way he counts them out to Darby reminds him of the old holos showing pre-war folk counting out the strange bits of paper that was once used in trade for goods. “Your reward. I am grateful.”, quickly followed with “that really is all I can spare.”

Darby gives the man an apologetic look and says “well, okay then… You uh… Good luck. You might not want to travel south. That’s the way we’re headed. To find where those creeps came from.” Mr. Meeseeks grudgingly thanks the group again, all the while eyeing the precious candies he gave them. Shouldering his strongbox, he bids the group farewell and starts off heading in a north western direction.

The sun is beginning the set, casting a gorgeous cacophony of colors across the sky. Suddenly, the group hears it. Something that Darby and Ather recognize hearing from holos back in the Shelter. It’s the sound of someone talking excitedly over a radio / intercom system, intermixed with the swell of hundreds of voices all chanting the same word, over and over…

Enter Ichiro

Friday, March 16th, 2114
With the rumors of a Raider King still fresh in their minds, the group heads to the first line of defense for Wright Town, a small outpost known simply as The Fort. Located south of Moose Town, the Fort overlooks what remains of the old highway heading south, into the Forsaken Lands where the Raiders dwell.

The Fort is a small concrete and metal building surrounded by a mostly intact concrete wall. Large metal plates and scrap have been affixed where the old concrete wall is failing. Also within the wall is an old water tower which has been converted to a lookout post. About half a dozen guards and twice as many militia man The Fort, rotating out every three months.

The group approaches The Fort and is allowed entrance through a large metal gate. A large man walks toward the group, and after sizing them up approaches Darby. He introduces himself as Sergeant Stryker. Darby inquires about the so-called Raider King, somewhere in the south. Sgt Stryker suggests they continue the conversation in his office.

The rest of the group soon take notice of a group of soldiers gathered around a Simian and another guard, fighting each other. The Simian quickly incapacitates the guard, and the rest of the group exchanges money. Nim approaches the Simian and introduces himself and offers to fight. The Simian is named Ichiro, and accepts his offer to fight. After trading a few blows, the combatants appear to be nearly equally matched, but Nim exploits an opening and scores the decisive blow.

Meanwhile, Sgt Stryker tells Darby all he knows about Reaper, the Raider King. They have heard of a place only referred to as the City of Bones. They had captured a raider spying on The Fort, and although the interrogation proved to be fruitless, based on the provisions found in the spy’s pack they were able to determine that the City of Bones is likely about three days travel south of The Fort. The exact number of raiders rallying to Reaper is unknown, and their best guess could fall anywhere between 50 and 200 men.

The Sergeant asks if Darby would be willing to travel south to gather recon on the Reaper and his band of raiders, and to scout out the City of Bones and return with a better estimation of their numbers, and intel on the City of Bones. The group would be rewarded for any intel they return with. Darby accepts the offer and returns to the group to tell them the news.

The group rests for the night. The next morning they set off in search of the City of Bones. They leave behind their cart, motorcycle and horses at The Fort, favoring to travel on foot. The day is uneventful, aside from Noodles showing up out of the blue. Traveling south, under cover of a forest, the group is preparing to make camp, and Noodles having drank something of his own creation – has befriended a rock; when Nim hears a few voices talking nearby. On closer inspection, it appears that three raiders have made camp in a small clearing surrounded by trees. The youngest of the three is away from the camp fire and closer to the small stream tending to their horses.

After quietly deliberating on what to do, the group decides to attack the raiders while they have the drop on them. Nim, Darby and Ichiro quietly move through the shadows getting closer to the raider camp. Noodles, Ather and Terry stay back and start to circle around towards the stream and the raider by the horses. Suddenly Nim stands up and states in a very loud, deadpan voice, “Override Authorization Code: B9-426A942Z!” and then charges the pair of raiders sitting dumbfounded around their camp fire. Nim fires on the larger of the two raiders point blank, and somehow manages to miss both shots. At nearly the same time, Terry steps in a trap that yanks his feet out from under him, high up into the trees. Ather manages to cut Terry down.

The raiders soon recover from the initial surprise and mount a desperate attack, but it is hopeless, and the two raiders by the camp fire soon fall to the combined might of Ichiro (brandishing a blade of pure energy in his hand), Darby and Nim. Noodles, Ather and Terry catch the younger raider off guard. The younger raider is dazed after being cuffed in the head by Noodles new friend, the rock. Ather and Terry restrain the young raider, as Noodles and his new friend begin asking him questions. Before the young raider can finish his reply, Nim stalks over from the campfire and plunges his hand axe in the young man’s forehead. The young man stutters his last three words in short staccato repetition, before falling to the ground, dead.

Noodles was frustrated by the needless bloodshed, and on the morning decided to take the raider’s horses back to The Fort. The rest of the group continued their journey south.

Reunions and Decisions

Friday, March 9th, 2114
The struggle is over, the body of Mr. Fix-It slides slowly down the stairs to come to an awkward rest just a step before reaching the floor. Footsteps are heard approaching the main door, and Catfish Billy pokes his head in and marvels at the destruction. He turns around as if to say something to someone behind him, then double takes and mutters “where the fuck?… He was just behind me!” But Noodles was no longer there.

The group searches the upstairs floor, finding two maps, an amateur hand-crank powered radio, and a magnifying glass. There are also sleeping mats scattered around the large, open room. The group then descend the stairs down past the first level, into the basement. It is dark, with only the dim light of an oil lantern, the wick turned down, illuminating from atop an old barrel. Terry can see through the darkness quite well, noticing the crouching bodies along the side and back walls first. With the help of a few flashlights, they find around sixty people tied or chained up, crouching along the walls.

In short order, the members of the group are reunited with their friends and family, with the exception of Noodles whose absence creates an almost endless string of epithets and curses from Lucius, extolling the failures of his son, and suggesting his jizz would have been better spilt upon the carpet and dabbed up with an old sock. Catfish Billy interrupts the tirade as he moves towards a massive form lying chained up upon the floor. His sweet Persephone has the build of a power lifter, and has been savagely beaten with chains wrapping around her body completely immobilizing her. Billy pleads with Terry to do something, and Terry extends his will and suddenly the mass of bruises covering her face fade quickly from black to purple to a hazy yellow, and her left cheek bone pushes back into place where it had caved in. Persephone blinks her eyes and wakes, much to Billy’s delight.

Edison is reunited with Marlene, who seems to have fared better than most of the prisoners. In fact, all of the shelter dwellers seem to have received the least of the beatings. John Malina, the leader of the original expedition from the shelter, and Kim Olsen, the resident botanist, both have had enough of the world above the shelter, and want to hasten back to the protection it afforded them deep beneath the earth. Abdi Johnson and Chelsea Wang on the other hand would rather continue to explore the world above, despite the trouble it has resulted in. They have no plans to return to the shelter.

Ather is reunited with his father, Bruce; and Darby is reunited with Tori. And Terry embraces his mother Tabitha. As the multitude of reunions wind down, a skinny woman in her 60s addresses the group. She identifies herself as Freya Erdrich, the wisewoman and psychic healer of the Axe Tribe. She thanks the group for freeing them, and says her people will follow the group in hopes that they go on to establish a new settlement of their own. Jamiah Smith stands and speaks for the remaining residents of Rapid City, and echoes Freya, in that her people will also pledge themselves to the group and willingly be a part of any settlement they create or join.

Besides Persephone, two other woman remain from the original caravan that was hit by the slavers, Jessica Shaw is an attractive young woman who insists that they all move back to Wright Town, where she hopes to marry into the Wright family. Crayon Levy expresses no loyalty to the Wright family, and pledges to follow the group where ever they end up.

In the midst of all the discussions, a young freak named Eagle Eye asks to use the radio. She vows vengeance on who ever is behind the slavers, and wishes to make contact to learn all she can. Darby flatly refuses to indulge her. As if on cue, the radio squawks to life, and a voice is heard requesting a status update from camp Fix-It. Darby grabs the mic and proceeds to make it sound as if the signal is breaking up as he responds in clipped syllables. After a few exchanges, the person on the other end says that it doesn’t sound like Mr. Fix-It, and says that Bella would like to speak to them. A few minutes later, a dark and sexy voice speaks on the radio, introducing herself as Bella, a member of the Green Empire. She says that she was aware of the rogue operation lead by Mr. Fix-It, and that she was foolish to think he could be trusted with leading a simple scouting mission. After no response from the group, she tells the group that they can use this radio channel to contact the Green Empire again, if they wish to know more about it.

After pouring over the two maps, the consensus of the group is to leave Rapid City and return to Wright Town to collect any reward, and then set off south to Moose Town, where they will seek out one of the fabled job boards in the middle of town, in hopes of high adventure. John Malina, Kim Olsen, Edison Tycho and Marlene, and Bruce Knorb all quietly depart, intent on returning to the safety of the Iron Shelter.

Monday, March 12th, 2114
The journey back to Wright Town is uneventful, as the group and nearly 60 others follow in their wake. Upon their arrival, the town celebrates, and rewards the group with a portion of the caravan cargo to include medicine and antibiotics. The next day the group leaves for Moose Town. Most of the followers remain in Wright Town, but still pledge to join the group if they ever establish their own settlement. Tori and Crayon accompany the group on their journey to Moose Town.

Tuesday, March 13th, 2114
On the road to Moose Town, the group finds an old refrigerator under an overpass. Three bodies lay nearby, the result of a stand off gone wrong. In the refrigerator they find 20 days worth of dried provisions and six gallons of clean water. They also recover a few pistols from the bodies.

Wednesday, March 14th, 2114
The next day of the journey, most of the group starts to feel an odd, fatigued sensation. At about the same time, Crayon asks why there is a box in the wagon making “lots of clicking noises”. The group hurries on through the hot spot, and shortly leaves the irradiated area. Only Darby seems to have any real lasting side effects from the exposure.

Thursday, March 15th, 2114
The third day finds the group reaching Moose Town. It is a smaller settlement about an eighth of the size of Wright Town. A watch tower can be seen from a distance. It is manned by men with bows. Moose Town is primarily a farming community, they also raise alpacas for their wool. The leader of Moose Town, named John Tyler, meets with the group shortly after their arrival. When asked if there are any jobs, John mentions the frequent raider attacks the come from the south. He also tells the group about rumors of a supposed “raider king”. He doesn’t know more, but suggests that the group travel east to The Fort, a small stronghold with a rotating militia from Wright Town. The Fort often warns Moose Town of any large raider group movements. If anyone knows anything about a new “raider king”, the people manning The Fort would know.

That evening the group relaxes in a bar. An exceedingly large man named Roscoe sizes up Darby and challenges him to a friendly fight. Roscoe offers up a large cleaver like sword, forged from an old steel bumper. Darby offers up a rifle and knife to counter. The men square off in a corner as others in the bar begin crowding around them to watch the fight. Roscoe is the stronger of the two but Darby seems to have more experience fighting. After a few exchanges, the two go to ground where Darby lands a seismic headbutt, pasting Roscoe’s nose flat with a sickening crunch. The blood spray blinds Darby. Roscoe breaks free from the hold and the two men rise up, giving Darby a moment to clear his eyes. Thinking to take advantage, Roscoe moves in for the attack but is rebuffed, and then falls for the feint leaving himself open to a devastating blow, dislocating his jaw as he careens across the nearby table, breaking glasses and bottles. Standing shakily back on his feet, Roscoe mumbles his forfeiture through the blood streaming from his flattened nose. The sword/cleaver is Darby’s. After having his jaw set back in place, Roscoe congratulates Darby’s win with a glass of whiskey.

Another ally appears, but is he as slow as he seems?

Friday, March 9th, 2114
Having regained control of his mount, Darby is circling around to the front of the building. As he rounds the corner at a trot, the horse is spooked by a crouching figure. Failing to keep control of the animal, Darby falls off the mount. The stranger levels a crossbow at Darby’s chest and says " Nim is looking for Bob." Darby replies “I don’t know anything about that, but I’m going back in there”, motioning towards the building. Nim gestures for Darby to lead on, and they both hop back in through the nearest window. In response to the strange looks Nim gets, Darby placates the group by saying “He’s helping us, but I think he’s a little retarded.”

The firefight continues, and Darby sees an opening to sneak up behind Mr. Fix-it. Hoping to put an end to the firefight, Darby tries to grab Mr. Fix-it and threaten him with his machete. Unfortunately Mr. Fix-it is too fast and reversed the grab, knocking the machete out of Darby’s hand. Darby grins sheepishly as Mr. Fix-it levels his gun to his face and pulls the trigger.

Click.

Only then did he realize he was out of ammo. Darby headbutts Mr. Fix-it, pasting his nose in a red spray. Mr. Fix-it attempts to pistol whip Darby in response, only to have his arm caught mid strike and the pistol ripped from his grasp. Darby retreats back to the cover of a nearby room.

The fighting continues, one by one, the other slavers get taken down by bow shot, crossbow and dagger. At one point Terry steps into view and flings three large rocks in rapid succession, his movements so fast his arm is a blur. The stones hit their mark, and two slavers go down with cracked skulls. Terry slinks back into the darkness of the room.

Using this distraction to his advantage, Darby pistol whips Mr. Fix-it, making a ruin of his already flattened nose. Mr. Fix-it runs toward the doorway as more slavers pour inside. “About fucking time the rest of you showed up, now KILLTHATASSHOLE!” Fix-it screams in bloody rage, pointing at Darby.

Nim levels a pistol of his own at Mr. Fix-it, it barks explosively but misses. Edison takes down one of the new comers with a clean shot to the neck, while Terry dispatches another with a blur of hurled stones. Ather, seeking to take advantage of the confusion hurls a dagger at Mr. Fix-it, but misses the mark. The dagger sails past Mr. Fix-it to sink deeply into Terry’s shoulder.

Chaos erupts, Darby and Ather fall back to the room where Nim and Edison have been sniping. Terry, bleeding profusely, climbs out the nearest window into the cool night air, a slaver quietly following from behind. He attempts to heal himself but the pain is too great, breaking his concentration. The warm golden glow that normally fills him when he reaches for it, forsaking him. The slaver slips through the window and attacks Terry, who narrowly avoids the blow. Terry seizes one large rock and hurls it with great force, cracking the slaver’s head open like an overripe melon. The body falls to the ground, twitching.

The fighting continues, and the slaver’s numbers dwindle. Edison has an idea, grabs a nearby piece of wood and hurls it into the room where Mr. Fix-it and the remaining two slavers are holding up. As he throws the wood, he shouts to his group to “take cover!” The morale of the last two slavers finally breaks and they flee out the door, into the night. Fix-it curses and runs up the stairs to the second floor. Darby leaps after him, hammer in hand, and almost stumbles into him at the top of the stairs. Mr. Fix-it smiles a bloody grin and slashes at Darby with a short sword. The two lock in melee, trading blows. Finally seeing an opening, Darby finishes the job. Mr. Fix-it’s body slides down the stairs to the bottom floor, in a bloody heap. The slavers have been defeated.

The night of the critical failures...

Friday, March 9th, 2114
After dropping the lookouts, the group recovers the leather armor from the men. They then take a few minutes to discuss how they will proceed next. They decide to hold up there, and make their way into the ruins of Rapid City as darkness falls. They pick their way through the ruins until they discover a large three story brick building that appears to be whole. The building is situated in the middle of a large parking lot, giving the lookouts posted on the third floor a perfect view of anyone approaching. A few barrel fires burn in the parking lot, and there are several slavers talking, drinking and playing dice around the fires.

After scouting out the surrounding area, it is clear from the ransacked and abandoned buildings that the slavers took the town by force, and they are now holding up in the large brick building. Noodles offers to create a distraction by way of setting off a flash bomb in the street, in hopes of drawing away the slavers outside the building. Noodles and Catfish Billy will then lead the slavers who follow further away from the building, periodically setting off another flash bomb when they can to keep the chase. During the distraction, Darby, Ather, Edison, Terry and the two caravan guards, Bobby and Jimmy, will attempt to sneak across the parking lot towards one of the many broken windows on the ground floor at the rear of the building. The plan set, the groups split up to execute their parts.

Noodles sets off a spectacular explosion in the street about a block away from the brick building, and it has the desired affect. Eight of the twelve slavers in the parking lot chase after the forms they can see fleeing from the intersection where the bomb was detonated. Darby and Ather immediately charge across the parking lot, followed by Terry and Jimmy. They make their way towards the nearest broken window. As Edison and Bobby head towards another window on the building, Edison catches his foot in a pot hole and stumbles. Bobby quickly helps Edison back to his feet, but before he can thank the man, a rifle cracks from above, and Bobby’s lifeless body falls to the ground. Edison scrambles toward the building, noticing three horses are tethered to a rail near the other side of the building.

The remaining four slavers begin circling the building towards the back, bringing their crossbows up in alert. Ather dives neatly through the opening and stands to find himself in a room near the back corner of the building. Darby follows, pulling himself through the opening. Terry enters, then Jimmy pops through the broken window with Edison barely managing the feat behind him.

Ather manages a glance from the room into the building proper, and sees another room directly across form him. A large open area dominates the first floor, with three more rooms built along the perimeter, with a large pair of doors leading out the front of the building. Ather darts across the hallway into the room directly opposite. Meanwhile Darby and Edison take positions on either side of the window they entered, waiting for any enemies foolish enough to stick their heads in. After several attempts at playing whack-a-mole with the two slavers in the window, Darby and Edison manage to kill both of them, but Jimmy took a crossbow bolt to the throat in the exchange and died gurgling in a corner.

The other two slavers entered through the front doors. Ather glanced around the room he was in, it appeared to be some sort of abandoned shop, it’s remaining wares discarded across the tables and the floor. Taking position in a corner where he could observe both entrances to his room, Ather waits. The slavers start toward the room, one towards each entrance. When the nearest slaver turns his back towards Terry, the makes his move, rushing out to quickly dispatch the slaver with a sneak attack. Unfortunately the armor deflects the strike, and the slaver whirls around to face his attacker. Meanwhile, Ather continues to wait. Terry and his target fight rather ineffectually for several moments. The other slaver makes his move, entering the room and Ather leaps to attack him.

Unfortunately, the slaver ducks his head down in a defensive posture, and Ather pierces his forearm on the slaver’s spiked helmet. The slaver counter attacks but misses. Ather, recovering quickly from his blunder, strikes towards the slavers throat like a viper, opening it in a fanning spray of crimson. The slaver drops to the ground, his blood rapidly pooling around the body. Terry and his combatant are still circling each other, neither able to mount an effective attack against the other. Terry, growing frustrated, prepares to launch himself at his attacker, but instead slips in some of the blood pooled on the floor and lands on the spiked helmet, burying the spike deeply into his thigh. Exasperated, Ather flings a dagger in disgust as the slaver was taking advantage of Terry’s fall. The dagger strikes true, in the soft flesh of the slaver’s neck. Terry pulls the spiked helmet from his thigh and shakily stands.

Darby slips back outside of the building and makes his way towards the horses. Edison, not wishing to be alone follows. He see Darby cut the horses loose, then he mounts one and gives the horse a solid kick. The horse springs off, away from the building, not in the direction Darby intended. After a minute or two, Darby manages to coax the horse back towards building, and leads the horse towards the front doors. Edison, not wishing to ride, slaps the remaining two horses which run off into the darkness. He then enters the building again from a different window. He finds himself in another room, which also looks like it was once used as a place of commerce.

At this point a gun shot sounds in the main room, and a man introduces himself as Mr. Fix-It. He offers the group an ultimatum: stand down, drop their weapons, and he will allow them to live as slaves. He is carrying a pistol, and is flanked by three other slavers carrying rifles. Terry uses that moment to dart back across the hallway into the first room. One of the slavers with rifles fires, but misses. Terry then returns fire with his bow but doesn’t manage to pierce the slaver’s armor. Edison, hiding in another room takes advantage of the distracted slaver and shoots his bow. The arrow sails home, striking the slaver in the throat. The man grabbed at the wound as he fell forward, discharging this rifle. The bullet ricocheted around the building and somehow found it’s way back to Edison, striking him in the shoulder as if in revenge.

Mr. Fix-It kneels down next to the body of the dead slaver, and starts going through his pockets. Ather attempts to take advantage of the distraction and prepares to hurl a dagger. As he winds up his throw, his footing fails once again due to the blood pooled on the floor, and he falls forward, out of the cover he had in the room and into the open of the common area. Mr. Fix-It and the other slavers all return fire where Ather had previously stood, missing him as he falls to the floor.

New allies, and volcanic mud butt

Tuesday, March 6th, 2114
The group is challenged by the gate guards. The guards seem nervous about something, but when questioned simply brush it off, and recommend the group visit a place called “The Rust Bucket” if they are interested in hearing the town gossip. The guards do acknowledge the missing caravan when Darby mentions it, but they don’t offer much more in the way of gossip or advice.

With directions given by the guard, the group weaves through town towards “The Rust Bucket”. Wright Town is a huge, bustling place with a little over 1000 individuals living there. No one from the Iron Shelter has been around this many complete strangers before. They do everything they can to not appear like a slack-jawed yokels, and are mostly successful.

The group soon finds themselves standing in front of an old pre-war barge, beached up on the shores of lake Superior. A group of ramshackle scrap buildings stand on the barge, and a hand painted sign proclaims the establishment as “The Rust Bucket”. A broad bridge leads straight up to the entrance, where a small sign points over to a smaller bridge situated in the surf at high tide the leads up to a side entrance. The sign says “Freaks, enter from the side”.

Puzzled, the group enters from the main entrance and are not accosted. They walk up to the bar and meet an older woman in her mid to late 50s, who introduces herself as Helen, the owner of “The Rust Bucket”. Helen remarks on the quality and cut of the clothing worn by the group, and asks what they do for a living. Darby replies that they work with fabrics and are tradesmen, come down from a small settlement in the north, near Canada.

Helen continues to admire the clothing, prompting Noodles to ask her how much vodka he would get for his shirt. Helen thinks on that a moment, as Noodles strips out of his shirt, and she decides to trade the shirt for six jars of their finest homemade vodka. Noodles hands out the jars to his teammates, and keeps two for himself and begins drinking. The group makes more small talk with Helen, asking about the caravan attack and admitting they too are looking for some missing people.

At this point an odd, dark skinned, yellow eyed creature, with tough toad-like skin, saunters up to the group and introduces himself as “Scary” Terry, and also admits he is looking for someone missing. Terry suggests that the same people may be responsible for all of the missing people. As the group adjusts to Terry’s appearance, they talk to him about what it is like living in Wright Town. Terry speaks of the Wright family as shrewd business people who make a living putting those people working for them into a form of indentured servitude.

As the conversation flows back to the missing people, another individual joins the group at the bar. He is a skinny, scrappy looking young man in his mid twenties. He calls himself Catfish Billy. He tells the group that his wife, sweet Persephone, was working as a guard on the caravan that was hit, and now she too is among the missing. Both Terry and Catfish Billy press the group to join forces. After a bit of back and forth, the group agrees that they will be better off facing an unknown enemy with as many allies as they can muster.

Catfish Billy offers to take the group to meet the Captain of the guard. The group agrees, reasoning that they can ask for additional reinforcements. They finish their drinks and leave “The Rust Bucket” behind. On the way out, Ather “finds” a nice leather cloak.

A short time later, the group arrives at the guard HQ, the remains of an old police station. Catfish Billy introduces the group to the Captain of the guard, Merl, a stout and taciturn man, built like a tree trunk. Merl agrees to allow two of his men to accompany the group on their trek to find the slavers. They will await the group by the front gate at dawn.

Catfish Billy offers his home to the group to shelter for the night. Terry politely declines and goes back to his home. Catfish Billy leads the group to his modest shack, down by the river. He doesn’t have much in the way to offer for the group to sleep on besides a few blankets to make the floor a bit more comfortable. The night passes uneventfully.

Wednesday, March 7th, 2114
Early the next morning, the group is awakened before dawn by the smell of fresh fish cooking. It smells incredible, like nothing they have ever smelled before in the Shelter. Catfish Billy offers up a breakfast of his speciality, spicy channel cat. Everyone enjoyed the fish, initially. A short time later Edison grips his stomach in agony, scrunching his face in pain. The older man’s body is wracked with spasms, through gritted teeth he asks where he can find the bathroom. “It’s the ole outhouse, down stream a bit from da shack”, says Catfish Billy, and Edison runs awkwardly out the door on tiptoe, clutching his ass. “Explosive diarrhea”, says Catfish Billy, shaking his head. “I always called that volcanic mud-butt”, added Darby, pinching his nose to avoid the worst of the aerial assault left in the wake of Edison’s passing.

A short time later the group meets up with Terry and the two guards, Jimmy and Bobby, by the main gate. The gate opens and the group starts off down the road, following the tracks west, Edison still walking gingerly, as if trying to contain something, to keep something within from escaping. They travel the broken and torn remains of the old highway west for the better part of the day. As evening sets in, and twilight settles on the road, howls erupt from the darkened woods to the south. A pack of feral dogs burst from the cover of the twisted foliage, intent on bringing down some easy meat.

“Let me show you how it’s done,” says Catfish Billy as he draws his bow and looses before anyone else can respond. The arrow lands true and drops the lead dog into the dirt. Emboldened by this move, the rest of the group fires arrows and bolts into the pack, thinning their numbers before they reach the group, where Darby and Ather finish the job. The pack broken, the few stragglers remaining break for the woods, pausing only to drag a few of their own fallen with them into the forest as a consolation prize.

Under the duress of battle, Edison’s bowels betray him, scouring his only pair of pants with their noxious payload. Self-conscience, the old man lumbers off to a nearby copse of trees to cleanse himself as best he can with the leaves and twigs at hand. Catfish Billy quietly skins one of the downed dogs, and fashions a bloody yet relatively clean makeshift loincloth for Edison, who is grateful for the gift. The rest of the night passes uneventful.

Thursday, March 8th, 2114
The next day the group continues to track the slavers, still heading west. “I bet the slavers are all holed up in Rapid City”, states Catfish Billy. “It’s only another day or so’s travel”. The group attempts to forage from the land to help pass the time as they travel down the road. Only Catfish Billy manages to catch any game. Another uneventful night passes.

Friday, March 9th, 2114
On the afternoon of the third day, the group discovers an overturned tractor-trailer, on it’s side a few miles outside of Rapid City. Using his special monocular, Darby spots three men laying atop the tractor-trailer. He also sees the telltale shine of a pair of binoculars. The group is being watched. After a short deliberation, they decide to approach the men on the truck.

As they approach the overturned vehicle, two of the three men stand up on the truck and address the group, while the third reveals himself beside the truck, holding a large dog on a chain. The men are wearing leather padded armor, carrying crossbows, and each of them have multiple piercings in their faces.

Darby tries to smooth talk the men as he continues to slowly close the distance between them. The largest of the men makes a reference to his massive manliness, and proceeds to dazzle the group with a full on display. Without hesitation, Ather hurls one of his knives at the meaty member, cleanly severing it so it fell to hit the ground with a metallic ping, made from the large ring piercing the head. As if on cue, pandemonium erupted, Darby closing swiftly with the man and his dog, while the rest of the group opened fire with arrows and bolts. Within a handful of seconds, it was over. The three men were down, but not without cost. Ather had caught a wicked strike from a crossbow bolt in his shoulder.

“Scary” Terry calmly approached Ather, and asked if he could help with the wound. Ather nodded, pain creasing his features. Terry hummed tunelessly to himself as he cut open the shirt near the entry wound. With a gentle motion, he slowly worked the bolt back out of the wound, and then applied pressure to the entry site itself. Within moments the wound puckered up and stopped bleeding. It would leave a scar, but as far as Ather could tell after moving his shoulder a bit, the wound had already healed as if it had been properly tended to for weeks. Terry smiled.

There must always be a beginning

Our story begins deep beneath the earth, in a pre-war iron mine, converted into a long-term fallout shelter. It is called the Iron Shelter. Eighty years have passed since the bombs dropped. The year is 2114, it is early spring, the month of March. Few if any surfacers would know the precise date any more. But that is one of the things the people of the Iron Shelter do, they preserve the pre-war knowledge and culture that was nearly lost.

The Shelter came to be through the efforts of several like-minded scientists and researchers. They knew it was only a matter of time before the world self-destructed. In fact, when the world ended, it nearly caught the prepping scientists off guard, and not all of them made it back in time to the safety of the Shelter. Under the guise of long term isolated survival for space travel, the scientists built a self-sustaining underground habitat.

The next eighty years were kind to those in the Shelter. Much more so than to the ones surviving on the surface. Through the generations, the people spent their lives studying the great libraries, and maintaining the equipment that made it possible for them to live in their sheltered isolation. Yet not all was well.

Due to an imminent crisis, the Council voted to allow a group to leave and explore the surrounding areas around the Shelter. This was the first group of people to leave the Shelter since it was locked down, eighty years ago. The instruments showed that latent radiation was low enough to pose no threat. Their mission was simple. Scout the area around the Shelter, and report back in three days.

None of the characters were chosen to go on the expedition. But each of the characters were close to someone who was chosen. The group consisted of the following:

John Malina – defacto leader of the expedition

Chelsea Vang – she has extensive knowledge of electronics and machines

Kim Olsen – she specializes as a botanist

Abdi Johnson – he maintained the few guns at the Shelter

Marlene Tycho – a natural organizer and planner, she is also gifted with electronics

Tori Black – she helped maintain the micro-fusion reactor, along with Edison Tycho

Bruce Knorbe – not really a kind man, but you can count on him when the chips are down

With great fanfare, the expedition left the Shelter. Three days later, they did not return as planned. Another day passed, and another, without any contact from the team above. Rumors ran rampant. The Council was divided on what should be done, but when Edison Tycho and Darby Saxon confronted them, the Council quickly agreed that sending them, along with Ather Knorbe and Noodles Haggerty, was the best course of action.

On Monday, March 5th, 2114, after some brief preparations, the group soon find themselves riding the slow elevator towards the surface. Shortly after, they are outside, in the blinding sunlight of an almost alien landscape. The land itself is great and wide open, filled with scrub grass. Before noon, the group came upon the site of an encampment. They found many of the men of fighting age to be slain, some appearing to have been killed in their sleep. Most were riddled with crossbow bolts, and axe wounds.

As they explored the forlorn camp, a pack of giant roaches attacked! Noodles shouts “here, throw this”, lights an ether-bomb and toss it to Ather, who wasn’t expecting the lobbed explosive which drops at his feet. With lightning reflexes, Ather springs out of the way as the bomb detonates where he stood, washing Noodles in flames. Fortunately, Noodles ducked down as the blast washed over him, negating the worst of it, resulting in only a few singes to show for the misspent explosive. But as inexperienced as the group was, they still managed to make short work of the roaches with only a few minor burns, cuts, and bruises to show for it.

The group finds several tracks leading south from the ruined camp. They follow the tracks a bit further south until they come upon an old Red Rocket filling station off the side of what remains of the road. The station had signs of recent habitation. There was a cook fire in the back corner, and at least three places to bed down. They found one body of a middle aged man, but no other clues as to who once lived there.

Noodles contrived to prop up the body and “animate” it using a complex system of pulleys and levers. He wanted his construct to be an imposing figure during the night watch. He was not wholly successful in his attempts, but he did manage to coax some jerky movement out of the body. Tycho tried his hand at cooking one of the dead roaches, but to everyone’s relief, Darby soon ended that experiment. The noxious odors wafting up from the burning meat were too much. The group spent an uneventful if restless night at the filling station, and were somewhat better prepared to continue their search in the morning.

Tuesday, March 6, 2114
The next day they continue following the tracks south, coming upon the ruined remains of a caravan wagon, along with two corpses of caravan guards. There is evidence that whoever attacked the caravan, made off with the other wagon and any survivors. A few more miles south, the road comes to a T, and the tracks veer off to the west. To the east, the ruins of a large city appear to be only a few miles away. Signs of life can be seen in and around the ruins, so the group decides to investigate the city before continuing on the tracks heading west.